Well that went very well.

Suzanne and I had a really big audience for the trans panel, and a lot of great feedback afterwards.

I did get to some programming. Jasper was his usual highly amusing self. The results of the global audience reaction study of the Hobbit movies were very interesting, but I should refrain from commenting on that until I have the actual data or a proper paper to refer you to.

Then it was time for the Bowie and Prince panel. We played a bit of music as we were waiting for people to file in. That turned into an impromptu audience sing-along for “Starman”. Cat and I recreated the Bowie/Ronson hug. I am so pleased we did that panel.

I got a bit of time to myself after that, quite a bit of which was spent interviewing Cat for the Ujima show and Salon Futura. Then it was time for Closing Ceremonies. Another Finncon successfully completed. Irma and I had dinner with Ian Watson and his Spanish wife, Cristina, who are still waiting for their luggage to arrive.

However, we ere not quite done; there was the small matter of the dead dog party. As is traditional, we headed out into the country to a cabin by a lake. There was sauna. As is also traditional, I provided some excellent malt whisky. (Bowmore Black Rock for anyone who is interested.) The weather was beautiful and the lake water not entirely freezing. Even I managed to swim quite a bit. This being Finland, there was a fair amount of casual nakedness.

The photo below was taken at around 11:30pm, by which time the lake water had cooled off quite a bit. As you can see, the Finns were still keen on swimming, and there was an impromptu water polo game going on using a Death Star beachball. (Cat proudly told me that she’d helped blow up the Death Star). Eeva-Liisa regaled us with stories of her youth as a keen high board diver. Everyone marveled at the weather.

The day wasn’t quite perfect. Kevin wasn’t here, Iceland lost the football, and I am covered in mosquito bites, but days like this remind me why I keep coming back to Finland.